Southern Ocean Nurses Overwhelmingly Authorize Strike

Nurses saving lives at the Hackensack Meridian Health hospital are renegotiating a collective bargaining agreement that expires next week

Southern Ocean Medical Center Nurses have voted almost unanimously to authorize their bargaining committee to give a 10-day notice of their intent to strike if they are unable to agree with management on a new contract with strict safe staffing standards, among other demands.

The current contract for nurses at SOMC expires on April 30th. Nurses at SOMC belong to Local 5138 of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), New Jersey's largest health care union, representing more than 15,000 nurses, social workers, therapists, technicians, medical researchers, and other health care professionals in hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, blood banks, and university research facilities in New Jersey and Southern Pennsylvania.

Hackensack Meridian Health, a large healthcare corporation with 18 hospitals and other healthcare facilities, had already agreed to include nurse-to-patient ratios in another HPAE local contract bargained last year. Local 5030 at Palisades Medical Center has staffing ratio language that Local 5138 nurses want included in their contract.

HPAE President Debbie White, RN, said, "Nurses across the state and nation-wide are no longer willing to accept the status quo. Nurses will not stay in hospitals that force them to care for unsafe numbers of patients to maximize profits. Nurses know that this is not a safe environment for patients, and they are willing to fight for this language."

"Strict staffing standards also make good business sense for health systems," White said. "Since patient outcomes improve with safe staffing, hospital reimbursements improve as well. Safe staffing also decreases turnover costs as nurses are more likely to stay at hospitals with nurse-to-patient ratios. Currently we have a retention problem in our hospitals as nurses continue to leave their jobs."

"Our hardworking nurses want a good contract so we can continue doing what we are trained to do, which is care for our patients," HPAE Local 5138 President Anna Pona, RN, said. "I have been a nurse for more than 35 years and I have never seen morale as bad as it is right now. Even younger nurses leave as soon as they realize caring for patients with the current staffing levels places their nursing license at risk."

For more information, contact: Michael Allen, (646) 436-7556.

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